In applicants co-pending patent application Ser. No. 09/020,107, the disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference, a method is disclosed for preheating dental composite material within a container before extruding the material from the container into an oral cavity for clinical application. The dental composite material is preheated to an elevated temperature above that of ambient temperature just prior to placement into a prepared tooth in the oral cavity. The prepared tooth is then clinically treated by exposure to light radiation while the dental restorative composite material is at the elevated temperature. Conversely, at present, photocurable dental materials are extruded into the patients mouth at ambient temperature from a standard dispensing device and cured by exposure to light radiation at ambient temperature.
In accordance with the findings of the applicant and as taught in the aforementioned patent the physical properties of photocurable dental material(s) are enhanced when preheated just prior to clinical usage. Examples of dental materials which can be enhanced by preheating prior to use include restorative materials (commonly referred to as filling materials), etching agents, bleaching compositions, dental cements, impression materials and more particularly photocurable dental restorative materials.
Applicants co-pending application also teaches preheating one or more standard pre-filled compules of dental material using a small heating device capable of housing a plurality of pre-filled compules in a removable section of the device. The removable section acts as a heat sink for all of the compules permitting the removable section to be removed after being heated to an elevated temperature and placed close to the patient, preferably upon a standard bracket tray which most dentists presently use to hold instruments and medicaments, during a given operative procedure. Prior to use a heated compule is placed in a conventional dispenser by the dentist and dental material is then extruded directly into the prepared dental cavity.
Conventional dispensers are mechanical extruding devices such as taught by U.S. Pat. No. 4,384,853 to Welsh and U.S. Pat. No. 5,489,207 to Dragan and have no other purpose. The dispenser of the present invention is a hand held portable device designed to heat a compule of dental material which is removably inserted in the dispenser to an elevated temperature above that of ambient and to controllably extrude the pre-heated dental material from the compule directly from the dispenser into an oral cavity for clinical application.